In South Asia, nurses (who are predominantly female) are often best placed to provide direct mental health support to people and shape services so they are as effective as possible. But in the region, nurses, and especially psychiatric nurses, are greatly undervalued and sit at the bottom of a hierarchy of decision-making power that’s dominated by doctors (who are predominantly male).
To change this situation, we are providing mental health training to nurses and campaigning for decision makers to involve them in the shaping of services. We are also tackling the stigma and prejudice that often exists even in these healthcare settings, by improving knowledge and understanding about mental health support and therapies.
We are creating and delivering a new evidence-based framework of mentorship programme for nurses (newly registered and experienced nurses) at Bhaktapur Hospital, Nepal. This programme is helping nurses develop professionally, providing them with specialist training to promote nursing leadership capacity in Nepal. This project improves the work experiences of newly registered nurses as well as promotes skill sharing between senior and junior staff and creates a confident nursing workforce.
This framework will be replicable to other healthcare providers and nursing employers in Nepal and recognised by the Nursing Division, Ministry of Health, Nepal.
Pratikshya Rai, Staff Nurse,
Psychiatric Inpatient Unit
– we trained the centre’s staff to offer effective treatment which is non-confrontational, culturally, and age-appropriate and avoids over reliance on medication.
– we trained and supported staff to improve the services they offer to people living with Alzheimer’s and other types of dementias including counselling, a befriending scheme, memory screening, a helpline, and a support group for carers.
– we trained staff on violence prevention and how to prepare people for life after they leave the centre, many of whom struggle with severe mental illness such as schizophrenia or severe depression.
– we have delivered mental health awareness training to a range of hospital-based professionals – this included identifying mental illness, providing effective support, understanding the challenges of mental illness and the associated stigma and discrimination. As a result, patients who have mental health problems have their needs assessed and are provided with support that improves their quality of life.
– We successfully trained a group of general and psychiatric nurses in Gokarneshwar training hospital , Nepal, helping them meet the mental health needs of their patients.
Sangita Laudari, Psychologist